"I was an accidental actor. I was never formally trained."

“A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat delivers them to destruction and their triumph to despotism.”

“All authors secretly hope that their works will be read in 100 years' time and 200 years, and that they will somehow survive into the future.”

Source : Source: wwd.com

“Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and memory. It instigates invention. It shocks us out of sheep-like passivity, and sets us at noting and contriving…conflict is a sine qua non of reflection and ingenuity.”

Source : John Dewey (2007). “Human Nature and Conduct: An Introduction to Social Psychology”, p.300, Cosimo, Inc.

“It's a great compliment that people think they're fast reads. It's always funny to me because it takes so long to get a book (written) -- for me, it's never quick.”

“The fewer the desires, the more peace.”

“It took me over a couple of months to find the right piece of transparent paper for a section near the centre, on the right side of the Garden of Nebuchadnezzar. When I did find it, it was on a bottle of my wife's toilet water.”

“In the United States three new methods of transportation made their appearance at almost the same time - the steamboat, the canal boat, and the rail car”

Source : John Moody (1919). “The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States”

“I have a flat in Paris and go there a lot, but the Eurostar's much more civilised than flying.”